Dedicated Fans Get Inked for the Ramblers

Some students scrambled to get Harry Potter scarves and Sister Jean shirts to support the Loyola men’s basketball team in its historic NCAA tournament run. Loyola junior Darby Jones got an inner lip tattoo.

Jones, 21, said she made the decision long before the team made it to the Final Four.

“I went to Arch Madness over spring break, and I posted on my Snapchat story that if they won Arch Madness I would get a Rambler tattoo,” the forensic science and biology double major said. “I’ve been wanting a tattoo for a while, and I just decided that it was going to say ‘Blers.’”

Jones said she plans on getting a permanent tattoo if the team wins the NCAA championship. She said she wants to get the outline of the “Blers” hand sign, but doesn’t know where she’d get it.

“Loyola will always be a part of me anyways so I won’t regret it, just because I do love the school so much,” she said.

Jones isn’t the only student getting inked for the ‘Blers.

Madison Strickland, 18, also got a lip tattoo to commemorate a popular figure at Loyola — Sister Jean.

“I was planning on getting ‘Go Blers’ but then we were in the tattoo shop and my friend was like ‘So many people have ‘Go Blers’ so you should definitely get ‘Sis Jean,’” the first-year marketing major said.

Strickland said she hasn’t shown the tattoo to the 98-year-old nun, but said she would consider it.

Strickland and Jones both said they chose to get a lip tattoo because it could be hidden and it would fade eventually.

Inner lip tattoos aren’t permanent. How long they last varies person-to-person, but they usually fade within a couple weeks, according to Tattoo Factory employee “Frosty.” Strickland said she got her tattoo at the Tattoo Factory in Uptown, and it cost $80.

Jones said she got her tattoo at Chicago Tattoo & Piercing in Lakeview. Inner lip tattoos there start at $100, according to receptionist Olivia Dyess.

Other students are waiting to see if the team wins the NCAA tournament before getting inked. Reagan Bishop, 18, said she made the plan to get a lip tattoo reading “Blers” if the team wins after seeing their Elite Eight game win against the Kansas State University Wildcats March 24.

Bishop said she thought the tattoo trend was a fitting choice to mark the team’s historic wins.

“It’s such a crazy thing that’s happened, and no one really expected [it],” the first-year neuroscience major said. “I think everyone is just following it up with doing crazy things.”

The Loyola Ramblers will play the University of Michigan Wolverines in the Final Four March 31 at 5:09 p.m. on TBS.